Wayrift will be celebrating its 9th birthday on March 26!
It’s been a while since we’ve held a “Design” contest, so for the Wayrift’s 9th birthday, we decided to put your creative minds to the test. As some of you may have already figured out, we hope to take Ben and Leona on a trip to the Lunar planet in an upcoming chapter. We’re looking to YOU to design some of the random NPC Lunars that we can use in the comic pages. While these Lunars will probably not have speaking parts, they may show up in walk-on parts in the pages.
Entries for this contest are due by Saturday, March 26 (two weeks from today). Winners will be announced Sunday March 27!
Send all entries to my email address at Aywren@sc.rr.com. Be sure to put “Wayrift Contest” in the subject so I don’t lose it (as I’m apt to do).
***For your entry to be considered, you must follow the racial rules of Lunars in the Darkstar dimension!***
Lunars should be as follows:
- Young looking, between ages 10-17. The Lunars who live on the new world are mostly children.
- Have white hair. However, this can be tinted different colors – such as white with blue, purple, pink, yellow, etc. highlights.
- Have green eyes, often slanty in shape. However, this can be a variation in the color green or lean towards green-blue or green-yellow.
- Have a name that follows Lunar naming conventions, if you choose to name them. You don’t HAVE to name your Lunar, but if you do, names should be made up of short syllables with capital letters separating each. The last syllable is usually the “last name” or clan name of the Lunar. Examples: FuSoYa, KluYa, ZenToYa, TsuYa, SoYa, ShiKonTu, NaTu, KiNaTu
- If you create a back story for your Lunar (you don’t have to), keep in mind that all Lunars came from the planet Runne and were part of the school at the Manor. These children escaped on a ship created on KluYa and have slept for hundreds of years in cold sleep on the Red Moon in the Blue Planet’s orbit.
You can create your Lunar with any tools available to you including traditional art tools, paint programs or even online avatar/doll makers. Your entry doesn’t have to be in color.
You may also WRITE a description of your Lunar if you do not wish to draw them. However, I will need as much detail as possible to include them in a future chapter of Wayrift. Know that I’ll take creative liberties based on your description. So don’t expect too much!
If you already have an original character who is a Lunar and fits the Darkstar Lunar racial rules, you may submit them. Just know that they’ll be making a cameo in Wayrift. Be sure to let me know that they are your original character and I’ll note it on the page as well. 
Disclaimer:
Note that when you submit the design, you give us at Wayrift permission to use them in a future chapter of Wayrift. You also give permission to post your work in a contest gallery on the website in the future. We can’t say for sure exactly WHEN this chapter will be posted (it depends on scripting, of course.)
Prizes:
Each person who enters the contest will have their name entered into a random drawing for Wayrift prizes. 9 prizes will be awarded randomly, not based on your entry or skill.
1 Grand Prize – Any item in the Wayrift store or a copy of Dreigiau Book 1
3 Second Prizes - Choice of Mug, Mousepad, Button, Magnet, Stickers or a copy of Dreigiau Book 1
5 Third Prizes – Choice of Button, Magnet or Stickers
Note: Before entering, be sure you have permission to give me your shipping address so that I can ship your prize to you. I know some parental units are uneasy about net contacts, and I respect that. I will not share this information with anyone or use it for any untoward purpose (previous Wayrift contest winners can vouch for me!).
Also, if you live outside of the US, yes… you can enter!
Resources
Here’s some free tools you can use to create your art entry!
GIMP – Like Photoshop, but free.
Dream Avatar Maker — Gaia Online Style
Otaku Avatar Maker — Chibis!
If you have other resources that you’d like to share with Wayrifters, feel free to post links below!
Good luck and have fun designing your Lunar! 
Ohhhh yesssss… You’d better believe Ash is looking forward to this. XD
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Wow, Wayrift’s almost nine? That’s ancient in webcomic years!
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Tell me about it. X_X
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Hmm….could one perhaps do a pair of lunars?
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Absolutely! Go for it!
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Alright! I’ve missed these kinds of contests! *attempts to crack her knuckles but fails miserably*
….heh? ^ ^;
I can enter too right?
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Please do!
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Yay!
OK!
Two questions (not really): Did you want the entry to be in color or black and white?
What file format do you want this in? PNG, JPG ect?
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Color or black and white are both fine. Whatever you enjoy most!
JPG, GIF, PNG — pretty much any “normal” image file type. I can open them all. ^_~ I’ll probably convert them all to JPG in the end, though. So if you want to save me conversion, JPG is the best.
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I’m going to be posting the end result on dA…I hope that’s ok.
I’ll send you her background later…I’m a bit wiped at the moment… X_x
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That’s fine! I love your design — will be really fun to draw, I think! XD
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I’m getting the urge to draw another one… XD
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Oh, thank you!
I hope I didn’t make the outfit too complex…feel free to tone it down if you want to.
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I’ve never done these before either. Should we put our chat name somewhere in the email as well (since I know my email doesn’t have my chat name in it at all)?
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Yes, just sign your chat name to the email submission.
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Hmm… maybe I’ll write something, since I can’t draw… though really, I don’t have much of aesthetic sense, at all. Which may be why I go for such obviously non-human characters–I don’t have to decide how they look different from the rest of humanity
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I don’t draw people very much, so I don’t tend to be good at drawing them. I find that working with pencil works best with both shading and erasability. -_-; It is amazing how much shading can make a difference in how real a picture looks. I will probably color it after I do the general picture.
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Just remember that whatever you submit makes you eligible for the prize — it’s not so much skill but participation (since we know not everyone draws). All I need is a basic concept, as much description as you can give, and I’ll do my best to draw a visual representation. If you want, you can even send me links to other pictures online to say “clothes look like this” or “hair looks like this.” That’s totally fine!
Just have fun! It’s not about “best!”
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True, but I am a bit overzealous when I do get to drawing. I had doing horrible art and then sending it to someone. (either that or I get yelled at by the characters for drawing them miserably, or they all sit there and give me distainful looks -_-; )
Is there any specific color for the plants on the new planet that the Lunars are staying at? I don’t remember seeing anything about that yet.
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ack, I don’t know what I was thinking with the grammar there. I can’t do horrible art and send it to someone or have someone else look at it. (maybe have a hard time, icky bad grammar sorry)
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The Lunars now live in a semi-tropical area, so plants can be pretty much anything you imagine!
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Are they green then?
Semi-tropical areas are fun. ^.^
Also, how many buildings do they have now since darkstar? As I recall they did not have very much yet in darkstar.
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They can be green, yes. But I bet there are some tropical plants of various colors/flowers as well.
This isn’t that much later than Darkstar, so they still don’t have a huge amount of buildings there. The buildings they do have tend to be small and dome-shaped, reminiscent of Zemi’s dome compounds on Ceiswyr.
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Looking forward to submitting this!
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If you don’t mind, I’ll send you a written description. I do have an idea of what I want, but my drawing skills are… lacking XD
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Perfectly fine!
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I can’t give out my shipping address, so I can’t enter the drawing, but I can still submit a Lunar design, right? *probably should have asked before she finished drawing*
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Sure! We’ll still put your Lunar design in the comic if you submit one. Just remind me in your email that you can’t enter the drawing.
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Yay!
Shall do *sends email* I hope you like her.
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Oh, I love her! Especially the little stuff rhawn! I’m looking forward to drawing her!
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Well… This is certainly exiting! I think I’ll enter the drawing anyway – even though I have such terrible luck I won’t win anything!
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Give it a shot! You never know! I’ve had folks who’ve won the Wayrift drawings tell me they never win anything usually. ^_~
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Hmm… As soon as my brain stops whirling I shall draw somebody. : ) Exciting!
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Question- I’ve never done this before, so how do you get a picture that you have drawn onto a computer screen? I’ve never done anything like this before, so I am very confused. Also, how do you get the picture into an email or something?? I’m sorry if this question was already asked, and I’m also sorry if this sounds confusing.
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You’d have to scan it in with a scanner first. Then attach it to an email.
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Thanks! There’s a scanner an my printer.
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That’s good. Just scan it into your computer. That will turn it into an image file. If you have a graphics program (such as the GIMP program I linked above), you can edit and draw on your image once it is on the screen. You can also resize your image in that program because scanned images are usually quite big.
Then just send me an email and attach the image file to it. That should work!
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Before I forget – a good head-n-shoulders character creator is this one:
http://www.lunaii-dollmaker.com/
I use it all the time to test-drive character designs in a simple way! I think I actually made a Ben once just to see.
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Um, what do you mean by ” often slanty in shape”? I’m sorry for asking this question and a little confuse.
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That picture wasn’t suspose to be there. I’m so sorry.
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It’s cute though!
Slanty shape — if you look at the cast page at Cecil, Ben, Tai, Zemi and Kip, you’ll notice my Lunars have eyes that often slant upwards on the outsides — sorta almond shaped. Compared to characters like Leona Bradhoc and Kory who don’t have slanted eyes.
http://www.wayrift.com/wayrift-cast/
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I stared at the two words “Leona Bradhoc” for a few seconds remembering ch33-pg28.
You scared me…X(
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What a difference a comma can make. *laughs* No, Bradhoc’s last name is Browning. No Leona Browning. XD
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I think Ben might take issue with that considering the relationship he is in with Leona. He probably won’t have as much of an issue with it as Leona would though. Poor Ben, instead of getting together with Browning she got together with someone who is more easily manipulated.
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I probably should have asked this before I actually finished drawing clothes but what if my clothes won’t be “lunar” enough?
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No worries! Lunars wear as much a variety of clothes as we do.
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Yes! A contest for me to enter!
*works on designs*
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Did u need one Lunar or more Lunars? (Because I not sure.)
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One Lunar is fine, but if you want to submit more, that’s okay, too!
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I will send my Lunar *send Lunar picture* and done!
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Um, how do you email your Lunar again? Sorry, I forget.
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You can send either an email attachment or a URL to the picture to my email address — it’s listed as a link in the big text in the post.
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Oh…..Okay. Thank you!
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Ack, I made a mistake on my entry…. ><
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No worries. I saw your DA post. If I forget to switch it out for the final image, remind me.
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I am sorry Aywren, I was working on coloring it and then I tried to save it again while I was working on it and it froze. ;_; Unfortuneately it was a lot of work that I lost and I am not sure if I will get the time or motivation to redo it all. The main issue is that it deleted all my layers when I save it beforehand, so I can’t even edit the groundwork that I had in the layers, which I had edited beforehand. I might work on another picture and just do the coloring by hand. I don’t think that my laptop is strong enough for the program, as it kept on trying to freeze, though normally it would unfreeze itself. Laptops are fickle beasts. Maybe Kip can help by taking over my laptop and make it behave. ^.^
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Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that! You can always just type up a description of your Lunar to me, if nothing else. That way, you can still enter the contest! : <
You also don’t need to submit colored work. You can submit just lineart if you like!
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I already tried submitting a line art along with a chibi to you. Did you not get it? I can try sending it again if that is the case. I did it just in case I didn’t have time to get it colored, as this time of year is busy in college.
My laptop is only almost 3 years old, but it still acts like a slow old cranky man sometimes. I was trying GIMP, and while I do really like it, there were too many tiny details in my picture to do the coloring quickly and have it look nice. Especially when your computer doesn’t like the program and locks up sometimes.
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I don’t see one with the name “Kimi” on it — did you submit it with a different name?
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I didn’t put my name in the subject, but I did put it in the email, sorry. I used my main email account. Kimi is one of my various chat names, as I change it up depending on who has what names in the chat so there aren’t similar names. That and it is fun to have many different names. I can send it again with my name in the subject if that would be easier.
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Please attempt to send it again. I’ve looked through all of my saved submissions (even in the email body) and do not see one from you. Sorry!
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It might be my email. Sometimes the filters are odd. I will send it through my other email so I can give you what to look for so you know its me as my other email I don’t want to give out. It has cerulean and plants in the name and is a yahoo account. Anything else I should know?
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I see where you attempted to send it this time. My email bounced it back, however, because the image file is too large. Try resizing it to something smaller and send it again! We’ll get it!
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Ah, too many things attached. Will try again, thanks. ^.^ Still might be my email for the first time though. It has better spam control, but sometimes it is a pain.
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Hi, sorry for double posting but I just want to confirm that you did get something this time. I don’t always get along with computers very well. -_-’
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Got it this time, Kimi! All good!
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I made a face on Manga.com Avatar Face maker, drew the face, and added a body. Scanned it to a printer, took hours emailing my friend with questions about how to send a scanned item as an attachment, got it to work, and sent the picture. Man I am tired. But in my opinion, it was all worth it.
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I got it! She’s wonderful — thank you so much for all of your hard work on this!
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I may not be able to enter. I don’t know if I can get to my email until next weekend, which is a shame because I have a Lunar all done.
I suppose these things can’t be helped, though.
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You can upload it somewhere, even Deviant Art, and just send me the URL. That works, too!
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Meaning, you can post the URL here, or just use the contact form at the top of the site if you don’t want to show your design to everyone early.
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Thank you for your comment on my picture, it really made my day!(even though its only 10:20 where I’m at)
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Oh, you’re very welcome! We’ve had a great turn out for this contest and everyone’s done such a wonderful job! It’ll be an awesome chapter to draw all of these Lunars — soon! Soon!
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Now I’m excited for this chapter!:)
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I just want to ask if you got my drawing. Sorry, I’m a bit paranoid when it comes to such things. (And I’m even not sure if I write correctly
)
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HaRuMe, right?
It should be fun trying to draw his hair – he also has the most handsome eyes! 
Thank you so much for your entry!
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I’m relieved and really glad you like it
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I was wondering if you got my picture. (I’m just asking.) Mine is Avatar92.
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Yes, I did. Yours was KyRaFe, right? Love her little outfit. Am I imagining things, or does she like bare feet like Aiden?
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…!!
*ashamed face * You know what, she does. I forget to the shoes on her feet. i make mistakes so much.
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Wait a minute! What I’m ashamed of? (Laughing) Yay, it does look like her feet are just like Aiden’s!
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Whee! Finished my entries; altered two of my chars who already had white-hair to be more Lunar-ish. Hope they work out!
http://www.adhemlenei.com/2011/03/24/lunars/
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Got it! Thanks for the entry!
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http://thegaelachu.blogspot.com/2011/03/tildar-my-lunar-boy.html
My website and TilDar for you.
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Awesome! May I post a link to your blog in Wayrift’s sidebar?
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Of course you may! I have absolutely no problem with that.
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Also, hooray for last minute drawing of said pictures… >_<
I shall send it in! As soon as I can figure out how my scanner works…
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